October 20, 2006

Bob Licht Bonus audio content: LICHTcast #1

I’ve been saying it for about 10 months.

Byron Scott has been saying it since training camp…last year.

Practically everybody who has seen Chris Paul play comes away with the same thought: CP3 is the best point guard in the NBA.

Now before you click on the ‘X’ in the top right corner of your computer, hear me out. You see, there’s this guy who writes for this website who agrees with Byron…and well…me and everyone else with a clue about what it takes to be the best point guard in the best league that plays basketball.

The author in question is John Hollinger of ESPNInsider.com. He has devised a system called Player Efficiency Rating (PER) in which he rates a player’s per-minute productivity in the NBA.

And the reason he has found his way into my column is that the system ranks the Hornets very own Chris Paul as the #1 point guard in the league (and 7th most efficient player in the entire league).

Now, I don’t want to go into great depth about how his rating system works other than to tell you it credits players for their offensive and defensive accomplishments (from made shots to steals) and debits their failures (from missed shots to turnovers). His goal is not to prove, without a reasonable doubt, which the top players in the NBA are; instead, he intends to produce one number that summarizes all of a player’s stats. So, while a one-dimensional player like Ben Wallace may be one of the top 15 players in the league because of what he means to the Bulls, his PER may be lower because of points subtracted for his poor offensive numbers.

Before continuing let me tell you the top six players rated ahead of Chris Paul.

#1 LeBron James
#2 Kobe Bryant
#3 Dirk Nowitzki
#4 Amare Stoudamire
#5 Dwyane Wade
#6 Kevin Garnett

That means Paul is rated ABOVE Shaq, T-Mac, A.I., Nash, Pierce, and many other big name veterans.

The most astounding statement from Hollinger is ranking Paul’s rookie season as “…the best by a rookie point guard in 45 years…”

He uses his system to gauge the PER’s of past players and determines that CP3 had the third best statistical season of any guard EVER! Only Oscar Robertson, and Michael Jordan rank higher, according to his calculations. The only POINT guard to record a better PER than Paul is Magic Johnson.

That’s amazing company for a 21-year-old point guard to keep. But, as we’re all learning very quickly Chris Paul is hardly your typical NBA newcomer. Byron Scott compared him to Isaiah Thomas just a few days into his first training camp. Isaiah Thomas, after watching him in person at Madison Square Garden last season claimed, “…I was never that good…”

So why am I pointing out the obvious? Because it’s one thing for me to tell you Chris Paul is the best at his position in the NBA, or for his head coach to espouse the same; but, when a specific formula can be used to “equalize” all players and produces these kinds of results it’s a much more dramatic statement of his true talent.

So, is Paul perfect? No. Is he the best point guard in the NBA? I think so, as do a lot of others, including Hollinger. But one of the great things about CP3 is that if you ask him he won’t pull a Damon Jones (who once claimed he was the best shooter in the world) on us and say he’s the best.

Paul is a modest, selfless, leader. Those are all qualities that PER cannot measure. But if Hollinger can devise a formula for those traits, I’ll bet Chris finishes first.